This invention generally relates to illuminated gauge dials. More particularly, this invention relates to a gauge dial that can display at least two different types of vehicle information with a common pointer.
Vehicles include instrument panels with illuminated gauges and pointers to indicate vehicle information such as speed, fuel economy, oil pressure, voltage, etc. An illuminated gauge is comprised of a dial with associated vehicle information, a light source and light housing, and a pointer that is driven by a motor for movement relative to the dial. The dial includes markings with a specified range of information, and the motor positions the pointer to indicate the appropriate marking within the range of information.
In a typical arrangement, each gauge includes one type of vehicle information. For example, a tachometer will display a range of revolutions per minute (rpm) for an engine; a speedometer will display a vehicle speed range of miles per hour (mph), and a fuel economy gauge will displace a miles per gallon (mpg) range for fuel consumption. Each gauge requires its own dial, motor, and pointer to specify the appropriate information. This can be expensive for vehicles with a significant number of gauges. Further, this traditional configuration requires a significant amount of packaging space within a dashboard to mount the instrument cluster.
Accordingly, it is desirable provide a gauge configuration that is more cost effective and compact, but which is capable of displaying the same amount of information as traditional instrument clusters.